I love evaluation because I’m always interested in how we might be able to improve things for people, whether that’s our students, our staff, our sector colleagues, or of course society at large. I also love WP because it’s emancipatory and life changing on small and large scales every single day.
That said, life’s never static in HE, but it feels like the sands have really been shifting over the past few months, let alone years. In my role I’m trying to develop an evaluation framework for the full lifecycle of WP. Seems simple enough, in theory. But with work-streams sitting under different directorates with different priorities, practitioners and staff going through upheavals and restructures internally, regulators with changing requirements, and, most importantly, learners and students with evolving needs, and never – it feels – like the time or the budget to get everything we want, and need, done.